Publication
Dieter passed away at the hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland, after a long neurodegenerative decline. He leaves behind his wife, Vera, and his two children, Charlotte and Thomas. I met Dieter in 1966 when I started my doctoral studies at the Institute of Crystallography at the ETH in Zurich. That was shortly before his departure for a postdoctoral internship in the USA. In 1969 he returned to Zurich, bringing with him the newly developed X-ray System of programs for the solution of crystal structures. I was very fortunate to take advantage of it: it allowed me to crack a difficult structure by direct methods and finalize my PhD thesis. Later, it was also Dieter who helped me to find the most suitable place for a postdoctoral position, in David Templeton's group in the Lawrence Berkeley laboratory. The experience gained by Dieter in America, first in Pittsburgh in Professor George Allen Jeffrey's Department of Crystallography and then at UCLA in Professor Ken Trueblood's Laboratory, in addition to his PhD with Professor Fritz Laves' group at the ETH in Zurich, formed an excellent basis for a successful career in crystallography. Indeed, shortly after his return from the USA, in 1970 he was offered a position as a lecturer in the Science Faculty at the University of Lausanne for a basic course in crystallography. Three years later, he was offered the opportunity to create and lead the Institute of Crystallography at the same institution with the position of Extraordinary Professor, which was later upgraded to full Professor in 1978. My stay in Berkeley was coming to an end when Dieter visited me in 1973 and invited me to complete his team in Lausanne. Thus, in 1974, I returned to Lausanne to pursue my career in crystallography as a lecturer in Dieter's lab.